Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Embarcadero (we use the Spanish word in English, how odd*), or the waterfront. St.-Aignan's waterfront is a relatively modern development. In the medieval days, a wall ran along the river; there was no roadway.

The western waterfront. Part of the château is on the right and the collégiale church is on the left.

But now there is a small quay and a new roadway that takes modern traffic around rather than through the center of town. There's also a small allée of plane trees to spiff it up a bit.

An antiques dealer with courtyard parking.

During the summer months, a pleasure boat gives rides to tourists from St.-Aignan upriver and back. I've seen it operating, but I've never actually taken a ride. Another thing to do one of these days.

The pleasure boat docked at the embarcadère.

There is one restaurant on the waterfront called, curiously enough, L'Embarcadère. It's a café/bar/restaurant that was taken over by new owners a few years ago. The décor was updated as was the menu. And it ain't half bad!

Restaurant l'Embarcadère.

The second restaurant on the waterfront is in the Grand Hôtel, which also has new owners recently. The restaurant bills itself as "traditional;" it's classic French with local specialties. We've eaten there before it was re-done, but not since. We don't go out to eat much! But, again, one of these days I'm sure we'll find an occasion to try it out.

Le Grand Hôtel de St.-Aignan.

Other businesses along the waterfront include banks, insurance offices, a real estate office, an antiques dealer, and a medical lab. You can also find St.-Aignan's only regional bus stop there, and two of the town's three traffic signals are at either end of the waterfront street, which is called Quai Jean-Jacques DeLorme.

Bank branches below the château.

There are many private residences along the waterfront as well. Some are big maisons bourgeoises (townhouses) with courtyards facing the river. Others are smaller, more modest buildings. Most are lived-in, although the traffic along the street must be rather noisy.

Une maison bourgeoise.

*Maybe it's just in California that the Spanish word is used. I don't know.

woo hooooo, pleasure boat cruise!! I would really enjoy that! We always love to do that kind of thing. There's something peaceful about cruising along the river. We took a new Mississippi/Illinois rivers cruise boat a few weeks ago, and we had a feisty Asian Carp jump right into the boat! These things are crazy, and there are pockets of them invading the Mississippi (causing all kinds of ecological damage, because they don't belong in these waters)... they jump up out of the water-- it's nuts.

Technically, I think embarcadero just means quay, where the boats dock. In St.-Aignan, l'embarcadère is just that, the little bit of concrete where the boat docks. The street along the waterfront is called the quai.

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Living outside of Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher since 2003. You'll find here pictures and descriptions of our daily life in rural France, some travels, and other stuff about me, my husband Ken, our dog Tasha, and our cat Bertie.

All photos in this blog were made by and are the property of the blog author, WCS, unless otherwise noted. If a photo is mis-credited, please leave a comment so that it can be corrected. Photos belonging to others will be removed at the owner's request.